How This Vanderbilt Football Veteran Overcame Five Knee Surgeries And Learned Not To Give A F*** About His Feelings
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NASHVILLE—Bradley Mann walks up to the yellow dot on Vanderbilt’s grass practice field and draws all the attention to his drenched black shirt, but there’s something more significant in the visual here. Both of Mann’s knees are uncovered.
No brace. No compression sleeve. Nothing. When Mann walks in and out of his Friday-morning press conference, there’s no limp or grimace.
The situation is the norm for every Vanderbilt player that comes and goes in post-practice media availability, but Mann isn’t taking it for granted. He’s been through too much to think about doing that. He’s also been through too much to avoid the question.
So, how do you feel? How’s your health?
For most of Mann’s career as a Vanderbilt defensive lineman, he’s had a choice to make when he answers. He could either lie and say he feels good, or he could tell the truth about how he wasn’t himself as a result of injuries. On Friday, though, it felt like Mann was finally able to be positive when he told the truth.
“I feel great,” Mann told Vandy on SI. “Body feels good, ready for the season. Winning the natty this year, that’s the plan.”
More than ever in his career, Mann projects to be a determining factor in whether Vanderbilt achieves what it’s setting out to or doesn’t. At the very least, he enters 2026 as healthy as he’s been since he can remember.
Mann–a 6-foot-6, 308 pound senior–believes that this stretch of Vanderbilt fall camp practices are among the healthiest of his career. He says he’s refined his process in regard to how to do what’s best for his health and is on a course to being on the field consistently, barring an unforeseen freak accident. Vanderbilt defensive coordinator Steve Gregory and defensive line coach Seth Payne both indicate that Mann is still dealing with some bumps and bruises, but say that Mann finally looks like himself again.
“I think he does,” Gregory said in regard to the idea that Mann looks healthier than he did in the past. “All he does is come to work and give it everything he has every single day, so I’m really happy with him. He’s productive for us, he can definitely play on gameday and make an impact for us this season, and he’ll do that.”
When the question is posed, Mann chuckles for a second. Not because he doesn’t have the answer and needs to stall, because he can’t forget the answer. With no hesitation, Mann responds to a request to recite his injury history and reels off all the facts that come to mind.
Mann says he’s had five knee surgeries since arriving at Vanderbilt in 2022. Yes, really. Mann tore his ACL and meniscus as a freshman in a Vanderbilt loss to Alabama. He also broke his hand as a freshman. Mann tore his ACL and meniscus again as a junior in Vanderbilt’s win over Auburn. That’s not to mention the consistent bumps and bruises that he’s dealt with over the years.
Mann tells Vandy on SI that he tore his meniscus twice during the 2025 season, but played through it because he didn’t want to let his teammates down in the midst of the best season in program history. Mann got surgery in the offseason, but not before playing in all 13 of Vanderbilt’s games.
When Mann committed to Vanderbilt in 2021 as a three-star prospect, he couldn’t have imagined the physical and mental pain his college career would entail. He feels as if he wouldn’t be the same without it, though.
“I wouldn’t change a thing that happened,” Mann said. “It’s a part of my story.”
In another life, Mann would have stewed in bitterness and thought about what could’ve been. He would’ve let his injuries win and hung it up. After Mann’s slew of injuries in 2022, he almost did. He questioned whether football was still for him. He wondered if this wasn’t meant to be anymore.
When Mann first tore his ACL, he thought the world was against him. He was down in the dumps wondering how something like this could happen to him. The thoughts continued for a month before those around Mann sat down with him and reminded him that life is often difficult, but is more about response than circumstances.
Mann recalls that he eventually learned to conquer his injury and come out better on the other side of it rather than sulk in it. He views the process as transformational and has used it to pass along lessons to younger Vanderbilt defensive linemen that have dealt with injury.
“He’s had to change his mindset,” Vanderbilt defensive lineman Glenn Seabrooks–who was hosted by Mann on his official visit as a high schooler–said, citing what Mann said in previous conversations. “I remember when he first got hurt, he was down and didn’t really care about anything. He had to change his mindset and say that he was going to get back to the recovery.”
If Vanderbilt’s Friday-morning press conferences indicated anything, it was that Mann has acted to back up his revelation. Gregory raves about how intentional he’s been about taking care of his body. Payne commends him for how bumps and bruises don’t seem to impact him like they impact other Vanderbilt defensive linemen.
Mann wouldn’t have chosen this badge of honor, but he may have more experience with injuries than any player on Vanderbilt’s roster. Now–as he enters his fifth season as a Vanderbilt player–he hopes to be on the other side of them.
“It’s been a long journey,” Mann admits in hindsight. “It’s a long list [of injuries].”
It’s become a battle cry in Vanderbilt’s defensive line room at this point.
“F*** how you feel.”
It’s a string of words that Mann would choose to tell his freshman self if he could say anything to him and a message that’s carried him through four non-linear years as a Vanderbilt football player. Mann says that his whole position group has internalized the message–which eliminates excuses and an unrealistic expectation of sympathy–but it’s plausible that the message has landed with him more than any Vanderbilt player.
That victim mindset that Mann once carried around with him? It’s gone. This phrase has replaced it.
“No one really cares that I'm banged up, nobody cares how you feel,” Mann said. "Someone playing for the other team, they don't care that you're hurt. So, why should I care that I’m hurt? I'm just gonna show up every day and attack with that mindset.”
Mann told Vanderbilt’s media core that the biggest thing he’s learned from his injury-riddled past is to attack every day and work regardless of circumstance. Even after four years as a Vanderbilt player, Mann still feels as if he has to prove himself. He still feels as if he’s fighting for reps every day in fall camp. He still feels he hasn’t shown everything he wants to, and he doesn’t plan to let injury–or any other circumstance–derail him from doing so.
Mann steps into a crowded Vanderbilt defensive line room, but it’s a given that he'll find a niche. That's what Mann does, his teammates say.
“He may not have always been the strongest fast guy, but he's always been one of the smartest defensive linemen we have,” Seabrooks said. “He's very vocal, he's very communicative and his play style has definitely gotten better.”
If it was someone else, they’d likely be somewhere else at this point. Mann was a member of Vanderbilt’s 2-10 team, but wasn’t a part of the mass exodus that followed the 2023 season. Others with his lack of playing time left, but he didn’t. Others with his injury history would’ve given up, but he didn’t.
Mann is one of the 10 longest-tenured players on the roster as it enters the 2026 season, and he’s proud of that. Mann has watched as players have come and gone since his arrival on Vanderbilt’s campus four seasons ago, but that was never an option for him.
“If you cut me open, I bleed black and gold,” Mann said. “I love Vanderbilt. I love this place. I don’t want to be anywhere else in the world. It’s got the best football in the world with the best academics in the world, the best coaches in the world, where else would you want to be other than Vanderbilt?”
Mann has stayed with Vanderbilt through a defensive coordinator change, a defensive line coaching change, a complete program turnaround and is here for one more ride as a Vanderbilt player.
And, Mann isn’t merely here to be a Vanderbilt player. He wants to pay it back for all it’s done for him by being a factor on one of its best teams of all time. Mann has a clear path to consistent playing time for this Vanderbilt team and appears to be in position to take advantage of it.
“He's a big physical dude, and he can make plays,” Payne said. “He can move, he just brings a level of versatility to our room that we need. He can play the shade, the three, he can play some of our bigger personal groupings. He's had a really good camp, and I've been really pleased with how he's practiced.”
The indication is that a number of program sources believe 2026 could be the year in which Mann eclipses his career-high of 13 tackles and one sack in a season. Mann’s role won’t be to rack up numbers, but Vanderbilt believes he can impact winning nonetheless.
If he doesn't, it won't be because he gave a f*** about his feelings.
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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